The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 37

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Che Autheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortTH AMERICA.

O God! look down from heay’n, and see
A sight that well may move Thee!
Thy saints, how few! How wretchedly
Forsaken we who love Thee!
Thy Word no more shall have its right;
And faith itself is vanished quite
From all this generation.

Fictions they teach with cunning art,
And lies of man’s invention;

Not grounded in God’s Word, their heart
Is full of strange dissension:

One chooses this, another that,

And while they make us separate,
They cant of love and union.

May God root out all falsehood’s love,
And such as thus betray us;

Whereto their proud tongue all the more
Yet mocks: ‘‘Who dare gainsay us?”

“We, we have might and right alone,

What we prescribe must stand; we own
None as our lord and master.”’

Wherefore, saith God, I will arise!
My poor they are oppressing;
I hear their crying and their sighs,
Their wrongs shall have redressing;
My Word, endued with saving might,
Shall suddenly the wicked smite,
And be my poor ones’ comfort.

As silver sev’n times furnace-tried,
Is found for it the purer,

So doth the Word, whate’er betide,
But prove itself the surer;

The cross reveals its worth aright,

Tis then we sce its strength and light
Shine far in earth’s dark places.

O God, keep Thou it pure and free

From this vile generation,
And let us too be kept by Thee

From their abomination:
The wicked walk about at case,
When loose, ungodly men like these

Are in the land exalted.

Dr. Luther.

—+ + 0< >

The Reformation and the Bible.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

ol. VIII. St. Louis, Mo., October, 1886. No. 10.
Reformation. removed. It was therefore the interest of the

St. Paul gives it; namely, the Book of Com-
fort, which can support the soul in all tribula-
tions, so that the soul may not despair but
maintain hope; for here the soul lays hold on
the word of God, in which it learns the will of
God, to which it cleaves and continues firm in
life and death.”

We still have the Bible and in it we find
salvation and comfort for our souls. Let us
thank God for this great blessing of the Refor-
mation. But let us also remember that if we
prize this blessing, we shall not grow weary of
laboring diligently to maintain the saving truth
of the Bible and to spread it abroad in our
mission work.

pope to keep this precious book away from the
people. The Bible was buried, and free play
was thus given to the pope and his priests who
oppressed God’s people. Luther says, ‘‘Ob-
serve what the devil has accomplished through
the papists. It was uot enough for them to
throw this book under the table, and to make
it so rare that few doctors of the Holy Script-
ure possess it, much less read it; but, lest some
one should bring it to notice, they have branded
it with infamy, blaspheming God, and saying
that it is obscure and that we must follow the
sayings of men and not the pure Scripture.
What shall I say? The calamity is so great
that it cannot be reached by words or thoughts.
The evil spirit has accomplished his will and
suppressed this book, and has introduced in its
stead so many books of human doctrine, that it
may well be said that there is a deluge of books;
and yet they contain nothing but errors, false-
hoods, darkness, poison, death, destruction,
hell, and the devil.”

Through the blessing of God in the glorious
Reformation the Bible has been restored to the
Church. Luther translated it and gave it to
the people in their own tongue. The Bible
soon became the prized possession of thousands
of souls, and no efforts of the pope could wrest
this precious book from them. Millions of
copies are printed and circulated now, and for
us it is difficult to realize the fact that the
Bible was once so rare and that a possession
of a copy of this precious book was once so
dangerous.

But the Reformation of Dr. Luther did not
only restore the Bible to the people. It also
made it plain that this Book of God is the only
source of saving truth and true comfort for
poor sinners. Luther says, ‘‘Let all books be
introduced, and see whether they have so much
virtue and power as to comfort one soul in the
least tribulation. It is not possible, indeed, to

+ oa oe

The Colored Man and the Bible.

The tree is known by its fruits, and the book
is known by its effects. A sceptic once told a
colored man the Bible was not true.

“Dat book not true? Dat book % true.
I was once a drunkard, and a liar, and a blas-
phemer, and I used to steal; and dat book
taught me to be honest and true. If dat was
a bad book it would not make bad men good.’’

it will not make a bad man good. The men

men in the world; the men who are ignorant
of it, or hate and despise it, are the worst.
Where this book goes it carries with it safety,

known, rejected and hated, there wickedness,
and cruelty, and wrong prevail. And the in-
fluence of this book goes everywhere; in
humble dwellings, and in lofty palaces, men
and women are living faithful lives under the
influence of this book. Guided by the light
of Christ, cheered by His smile, happy in His
forgiving love, and hoping for the rewards
which He has promised, the influences of this

A bad book may make a good man bad, but ;

-——s

who read the Bible and obey it are the best —

peace and blessing; and where this book is un-

comfort a soul, unless it hear the word of God.
But where is the word of God in any book,
except the Bible? What, then, do we ac-
complish by reading other books and omitting
this? They may murder and slay us, indeed,
but no book, except the Holy Bible, can
comfort us. It alone has the title which

book follow them through all the walks of life,
scattering blessings wherever they go.

Prior to the Reformation the days were dark

and dreary. Doctrine and life were horribly

: corrupted. By the light of the Bible those
corruptions could have been detected, and by

the power of the Bible they could have been

_——_—+ + oo z .

THANKSGIVING makes our prayers bold and
strong and sweet; feeds and enkindles them as
with coals of fire.—Jniher.